Saturday, January 01, 2011

Made a trip to Kranji Nature Trail to explore the mangroves last Thursday, and while I did not see the much talked about Bruguiera hainesii, there were still quite a number of interesting sightings.

The most exciting find will be these Mangrove Leaf Slugs (Elysia bangtawaensis) - my first time seeing them! Not sure exactly what they feed on, but will assume it to be some algae, similar to other species of leaf slugs. These slugs can store the chloroplast of the algae that they feed on, and use it for photosynthesis!

There were so many of them in this puddle of water.

There were many Gedabu (Sonneratia ovata) trees here, and many of them were fruiting. This mangrove plant is said to be critically endangered in Singapore.

Yet another exciting find will be this other critically endangered mangrove plant - the Berembang (Sonneratia caseolaris). This was a really huge tree, but unfortunately the top part of the tree was broken off, but I could see new branches growing where the trunk broke.

Several Mangrove Cannonball Trees (Xylopcarpus granatum) were fruiting, and we found a fallen fruit below one of them. The seeds inside are dispersed by water.

Like most of our northern mangrove forests, there were huge patches of the Beccari's Seagrass (Halophila beccarii).

We also spotted a Black Spitting Cobra, but unfortunately I did not managed to get any photos as it was moving too fast into the undergrowth.